JAINA CIPRIANO
Jaina Cipriano is an experiential designer and filmmaker exploring the emotional toll of religious and romantic entrapment. Her worlds communicate with our neglected inner child and are informed by explosive colors, elements of elevated play and the push/pull of light and dark.
Jaina is a self taught artist with a deep love for creative problem solving. She writes and directs award winning short films that wrestle with the complicated path of healing. In 2020 she released ‘You Don’t Have to Take Orders from the Moon’, a surrealist horror film wrestling with the gravity of deep codependency. Her second short, ‘Trauma Bond’ is a dreamy, coming of age thriller that explores what happens when we attempt to heal deep wounds with quick fixes.
Jaina’s photographic works forgoes digital manipulation, everything is created for the camera. She takes an immersive approach to working with models, approaching a shoot like a documentary photographer as her subject is let loose in a strange designed space. Working with Jaina is often described as cathartic and playful.
Jaina founded Finding Bright Studios – a design company in Lowell specializing in set design for music videos and immersive spaces. She has collaborated with GRRL HAUS, Boston Art Review, and was a Boston Fellow for the Mass Art Creative Business Incubator and a finalist in EforAll Merrimack Valley.
Her photographic work has been shown internationally.
Instagram: @jainastudio
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ARTIST Q&A
Born: Boston, MA
Currently lives: Lowell, MA
Title of artwork: “True Love Waits (I Wanted to be Pure So Bad)”
What’s it about? This is a self portrait I created in 2022 for the Leica gallery in Boston for INWARD // OUTWARD curated by OJ Slaughter. The piece explores the damages and confines of growing up in the stronghold of Christian purity culture and how much of my worth and identify hinged on feeling pure enough.
Where else can we find your work?I installed a permanent piece at Level 99 in Providence, RI. I built some cartoon fire pits for BRM that are currently installed down in the Seaport too!
Where is your favorite public art piece in the area? More of an experiential event, but I fell in love with Solstice at Mount Auburn this year – MASARY elevated the already beautiful cemetery into something out of a dark storybook and walking the grounds was magical.
Who is your favorite Boston-area artist to follow? I love Andy Li’s poignant and evocative banners – the archetypal flag, the brevity and impact of the words – such a dreamy mix of visuals and writing that really get me.
What’s your favorite way to spend a day off? Thrifting aimlessly, drinking an extra hot, extra dry oat milk cappuccino with a good book and a little journaling.
What was your top song for 2023? Take Refuge – Senses Fail
Favorite food spot in in Allston, Brighton or the surrounding area? Pavement coffee will keep me happy and jittery for days.
What have you learned about your creative practice in recent years? Although I work throughout several mediums, the thread running through all the work is how our narratives shape the lives we live and the future we think is possible. Realizing this has allowed me to dive deeper into the work (and my own psyche) than I ever could before.
What is a piece of advice you would give to your past self as a young artist? Follow what interests you to the end of the earth, it doesn’t matter if no one else understands. A practice exists for you – not them.
What is your dream project to work on? I have a surrealist coming of age feature film I am almost done writing, I would love to bring that into the world. Also, large scale, narrative, immersive art spaces – New England needs more of them!
